Aging isn't for the weak….this takes balls.

Liza Lou

I bought this sweater with metal half circles on it that keep falling off and loosening at the slightest bump or touch of my purse straps. I posted a picture of it here:
I sat down today trying to reset all of the half studs by hand so that I won’t lose any in the future and that’s when Liza Lou popped into my head. I can’t imagine the patience and place in her mind she had to escape to in order to build her “Kitchen” piece solely from beads. I barely made it through gluing macaroni to a paper plate in 1st grade, I can still remember my frustration as they rolled away from me disappearing under the craft table or accidentally adhered to my glue bowl. If I’m being honest, I also remember eating half of them and rolling the rest in glitter in order to make bangles for my Barbie.(I’m creative in my own way. lol) Can you imagine handling MILLIONS of tiny glass beads and intricately building full replica pieces? Her concentration is just as impressive as the finished product, I would have been completely on edge after the third bead rolled away from me. Liza Lou received the MacArthur “Genius Grant” and “Kitchen” is in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Well, in my dreams I possess the patience and genius artistic ability of Liza Lou, but for the time being; I have this sweater that will be on permanent display in my wardrobe, until I’ve finally had enough and decide to embrace the unsymmetrical look of a sweater with missing half studs…..